Syrian TV: 39 killed in campaign tent shelling

Syrian TV: 39 killed in campaign tent shelling

1of3This photo provided by an anti-Bashar Assad activist group Edlib News Network (ENN), which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, show anti-Syrian government protesters carrying a banner and a Syrian revolution flag during a demonstration in Kafr Nabil town, Idlib province, northern Syria, Friday, May 23, 2014. (AP Photo/Edlib News Network ENN)Photo: Anonymous, HONS

2of3In this photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, backers of Syrian President Bashar Assad hold his portraits and wave Syrian flags during a demonstration in support of his candidacy for presidential elections in Damascus, Syria, Friday, May 23, 2014. A mortar shell struck a large tent where supporters of Assad had gathered for election campaigning in southern Syria, tens of people were killed and wounded, opposition activists said Friday. (AP Photo/SANA)Photo: Uncredited, HOPD

3of3In this photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, backers of Syrian President Bashar Assad hold his portraits and wave Syrian flags during a demonstration in support of his candidacy for presidential elections, in Damascus, Syria, Friday, May 23, 2014. A mortar shell struck a large tent where supporters of Assad had gathered for election campaigning in southern Syria, tens of people were killed and wounded, opposition activists said Friday. (AP Photo/SANA)Photo: Uncredited, HOPD

BEIRUT - In the first attack to target a campaign event, a mortar shell slammed into a tent packed with supporters of President Bashar Assad, killing 39 people and wounding 205 others, Syrian state TV said Friday. The shelling underscored deep fears in government strongholds that rebels will escalate attacks in an attempt to disrupt the balloting.

Assad is expected to win a third, seven-year mandate in the vote scheduled for June 3, but the West and opposition activists have criticized it as a farce since it is taking place despite a raging civil war. The 49-year-old president has not made a public appearance in more than a month and was not at the gathering struck by the mortar shell late Thursday in the southern city of Daraa. But campaigning has begun in earnest, with supporters waving his pictures and Syrian flags during daily demonstrations in the capital, Damascus, the coastal city of Latakia and other government-held areas.

Many gatherings have been held in so-called "election tents" where nationalistic songs are played and supporters mingle.

State TV showed pictures of Assad supporters dancing in a campaign tent in Daraa. It then showed people lying dead and wounded on the ground, including several children. Its toll was the first provided by the government for the attack, which opposition activists earlier said killed 21.

Ahmad Masalma, an opposition activist in Daraa, said six such tents have been set up in the past week in the city. He said rebels from a faction of the Free Syrian Army umbrella group fired a single mortar shell at the tent in a government-held area, after repeatedly warning civilians to stay away. Daraa is divided into a rebel-held and a government-held sector.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which relies on activists on the ground for its reports, said at least 21 people, including 11 civilians, were killed. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned the mortar attack and reiterated his opposition to the indiscriminate use of any weapons by any party against civilians.